Climate change and environmental degradation are two of the biggest threats our world is facing. The pace of climate change is quickening and the poorest and most vulnerable communities are being hit the hardest. The CEDRA process is designed to help local humanitarian and development agencies (NGOs) take a structured approach to identifying possible impacts of climate and environmental change. It helps you access and understand climate and environmental science and compare this with communities’ experience. You will learn about the past, present and projected impacts of climate and environmental change where you work. You will assess the likelihood of these impacts occurring and their likely scale of impact. CEDRA will help you prioritise which impacts you can respond to, and how. You will also assess which impacts you want to make others aware of and encourage them to respond. This is all done with input from stakeholders and communities. The final stage is carrying out your planned responses and ensuring that your learning from the process informs your future work.
CEDRA’s purpose is to help organisations integrate adaptation into development and disaster risk reduction (DRR) work, moving towards an approach which sees projects intentionally designed to ensure that development, adaptation to climate and environmental change and resilience to disasters are addressed together – something we’re calling adaptive resilient development (see page 51 for a longer explanation of this term). It is intended to make existing work stronger and able to withstand environmental and climate change. It is a strategic tool, to be used across the whole of an organisation’s work rather than in specific projects or sectors. It is aimed at NGOs in developing countries, but may also be useful for other bodies such as national or local government.
CEDRA is designed to be approached flexibly. It involves seven different Steps and it is usually carried out in a number of Phases, beginning with a workshop. The diagram on the following page illustrates these Steps and Phases. You should adapt CEDRA to fit your context and requirements – which may mean that you do not follow these Phases or all seven Steps, or that you follow them in a different order or with a different emphasis.
At the end of CEDRA, you will produce a CEDRA Assessment and an Action Plan:
CEDRA Assessment
This document will:
- record current and projected climate and environmental changes in the places where you work
- summarise communities’ views and an assessment of their ‘adaptive capacity’ (their ability and resources to cope with future impacts)
- assess the likely climate and environmental impacts on communities and your projects
- rank and prioritise these impacts according to how important they are and how likely they are to happen
- identify ways to adapt your projects and, in some cases, identify new projects needed.
- record the actions you decide to take in response to the findings of your CEDRA Assessment
- record the actions you would like to encourage others to take.
We hope, however, that CEDRA will contribute to outcomes far beyond these two documents as organisations understand the impacts and risks posed by climate change and environmental degradation, and choose a better strategic direction for their work.
This document includes a series of exercises, examples and case studies to help you complete the CEDRA Steps and the resulting CEDRA Assessment and Action Plan. Before you start CEDRA, please look through this whole document because you may well find that you have already completed some of the stages in your existing project work.
